Summer isn't far away.

In many countries, Spring is the cruellest season of the year, and New Zealand is no exception.  It teases and tantalises: warm sunshine and calm weather is followed by days of icy southerlies, which have me scrambling for warm clothes again; my fingers are numb as I handle night-chilled timber.

But last Sunday was one of those special days.  A friend had invited me to visit.  The morning I spent loafing on the verandah soaking up the sun and in the afternoon we drove to the coast and had a wonderful walk up to the top of a headland, where the views along the coast and over islands were sublime.  The green vegetation and the varying blues of the sea and sky reminded me that there is Life Outside the Shed.  We strolled along the beach, conversation rambling over a variety of topics - such fun.  The sun poured on my bare arms and warmed me through and through.  It felt like the first time I'd been thoroughly warm for months.  Such a perfect day.  It really revived me and was a wonderful reminder of why it's worth putting in the hours to get back on the water.

Good friends; beautiful scenery.  And I will get back afloat.  I have so much to look forward to and so much to be grateful for.

A couple of days later, the temperature plummeted, but the weather can't fool me.  Summer isn't far away and like most of those brought up in higher latitudes, I revel in sunshine, even when I'm inside the shed.

 Fitting out the galley is a big job.  There is a lot to think about, although I suspect I'd better make sure I have some spare wood, glue and tools around after I've launched.  There are bound to be things I haven't thought about or that don't work out.  There will be two large, shelved lockers and one will allow large containers, bottles, etc to be stored

 The other will have the shelves closer together.

 For maximum convenience, there would be a locker along the outboard edge of the counter, but the situation of the portholes precludes this.  One has to make sacrifices for one's art.

 Because I coat everything in epoxy, work in progress has a tendency to hang around for days.  The fluctuating temperatures at this time of the year don't help - if I coat wood before about 3 in the afternoon, it blows bubbles in the epoxy, because it is still warming up after the cold night.  So I tend to have big coating sessions just before I knock off. This photo shows the door being made.  I've found easiest way to make sure they fit is to glue them up in situ and then put a dowel through the joint, which makes it nice and strong.

 I then did my usual panelling with kauri. I've been using Gorilla foaming polyurethane quite a lot in the joinery: it allows me to glue things up as soon as they're ready.  I've tried PVA.  It works well, but any spillage makes a light stain on the wood that is difficult to remove and shows up badly under the epoxy/varnish.

 All right.  Don't laugh.  We all know I'm a bourgeoise woman.  But cutlery that crashes and slides about in the drawer is also very annoying at sea or in a rolly anchorage.  And that's my excuse.  Arthur's Emporium couldn't come up with green baize ("Baize?" asked the puzzled shop assistant.  "What's that?"), so I thought I might as well go the whole hog with some nice, girly pink.

 And, of course, everything had to have lots of paint on it.

 And here we are at the end of the day, with various items of woodwork scattered about having just been coated with epoxy.

 The door in place, still requiring a finger hole.  And, of course, hinges.  I know I'll make a hash of these, so am putting it off as long as possible.

 Big lockers allow for lots of stowage, of course.  However, unless things are packed in immovably, they will slide around.  So I'm putting dividers in to control this.  I hope I don't find that all my containers don't quite fit!  I could have dug them out of their various storage boxes and cubby holes but it just seemed too much like hard work.  That's why the good lord invented charity shops, after all.  Those that won't fit can be taken and replaced with some that do!

The area under and around the cooker is still at the planning stage.  Let's hope the plan is clear when I get there!